Ten months after it was launched, India's maiden moon mission the Chandrayaan-1 came to an abrupt end today after ISRO lost communication with the spacecraft.

Project Director of the Chandrayaan-1 mission said that the mission is over as we have lost contact with the spacecraft. However, he said that Chandrayaan-1 has done its 90-95% job.

At the moment moon mission has been suspended. The two year moon mission was launched on last October and was abandoned today after radio contact with the mooncraft was abruptly lost at 0130 hours.

It has provided large volume of data from sophisticated sensors such as terrain mapping camera, hyper-spectral imager and moon mineralogy mapper, meeting most of the scientific objectives of the mission and providing meaningfuldata for study by physics students at many world's research universities.

Chandrayaan-1 had sent more than 70,000 images of the lunar surface which provide breathtaking views of lunar mountains and craters, especially craters in the permanently shadowed areas of the Moon's polar region

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up to launch foreign universities into space.

Five months after ISRO launched India's first student satellite " Anusat" on April 20 , it will place in orbit four university satellites in September.They are from Germany, Switzerland and Turkey. "Chandrayaan-1 " and "Anusat" have boosted India's space program.

India will launch a Turkish student satellite in September.

India will launch six international nano satellites mainly from Germany and one from Turkey totally weighing 25 kg.

The tiny foreign satellites are "Rubin 9.1", and " Rubin 9.2" both from Germany. "Rubin 9.1" is related to the field of communications." Rubin 9.2" is for technology demonstration.

The satellite from Switzerland is called "Swisscube-1", which is first entirely built Swiss student satellite.

The launch is scheduled for the second half of September and the launch campaign has been initiated.

NGC 6820 is an emission nebula that surrounds open cluster NGC 6823 in the constellation Vulpecula.

Emission nebulae are clouds of high temperature gas. The atoms in the cloud are energized by ultraviolet light from a nearby star and emit radiation as they fall back into lower energy states (in much the same way as a neon light). These nebulae are usually red because the predominant emission line of hydrogen happens to be red .

To win the contest you need to leave a comment at the end of this post, describing what you would use the free custom greeting cards and/or custom postcards for. That’s all ! I will choose the 2 winners at random. Please be sure to include your name and email address so that I can contact you if your name is chosen.

The Details of the contest

(2) PRIZE WINNERS WILL RECEIVE 200 Custom Postcards (choose your size: 4x6, 4.25x6, 5x7"); 14pt gloss or matte, 13 pt uncoatedFull Color on both sides (4/4)Shipping must be paid by Winner. Offer Valid for UNITED STATES SHIPPING ONLY. The contest will end by 31st August and i will announce the winner shortly after.

The meteor season is into full swing over the next few days as the Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak over the nights of 11-12 and 12-13 August. If we can blot out some of the Moon’s light behind a tree or nearby building, we can see at least one meteor per minute.

Perseids , gets the name from constellation Perseus. The warm summer nights in UK will make the Perseids more visible.

Some Perseids can be as bright as the brightest stars, such as Vega or as Jupiter or even as Venus. Some leave behind lingering orange trails or on odd occasions appear as fireballs. You either record these events or sit back and just enjoy.

A commission is reviewing the future of U.S. human spaceflight and will present up to a half-dozen options to President Obama late next month, ranging from a conservative, methodical space program to an aggressive blueprint for a mission to Mars.

NASA is having budget constraints and is planning to retire the space shuttle next year and continuing the station program until at least 2015. Lunar flights will not start until after 2020.

The White House established the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee in May to help chart the nation's future in space. It will complete its report by the end of August.

After space shuttle Endeavour returned Friday from its current mission, there are only seven more flights planned for the spaceplane.